Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours/Champions League Thread 2024/25

listermint · 21-01-2022 4:47pm

Emi Martinez signs on till 2027

LeBash · 21-01-2022 8:17pm

And Hause signed up

Bounty Hunter · 22-01-2022 12:47pm

Starting lineups

Olsen on the bench for the first time, Young is also back on the bench alongside Ings, Sanson, Targett and Carney

remoteboy · 22-01-2022 12:55pm

Pleasantly surprised Coutinho is fit to start. Strong 11 there. Need to see a 90 minute performance today. It’s been a while since we put together two halves of football.

JPA · 22-01-2022 12:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118516557#Comment_118516557

The lineup we all would have picked I think.

OneColdHand · 22-01-2022 1:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118516579#Comment_118516579

Agreed. This is the lineup I've been waiting for!

Patser · 22-01-2022 1:24pm

HAs to be one of the best, dream Villa line ups I've seen in years. If even a month ago someone had said 'yeah Coutinho starting in attacking role', I'd have been asking after what they were smoking.

They need to perform now though, no more excuses - and a wounded Everton might react to show 'it was Benitez, not us, honest!'

Patser · 22-01-2022 1:31pm

Lawrenson has predicted Everton , so that's a good sign

Patser · 22-01-2022 1:57pm

This is the type of game that Watkins loves, alone up front, on last defenders shoulder, using his pace to pick up longs balls and allowing Buendia and Coutinho to get up to him. Buendia doing more than Coutinho though

Patser · 22-01-2022 2:20pm

Buendia in last seconds!!!

Digne's delivery pays off.

Injured themsleves in celebrations though the muppets

Actually hit by bottle from crowd! Digne down

LeBash · 22-01-2022 2:23pm

Thats 2 goals from 5'6" Buendia's head.

remoteboy · 22-01-2022 2:27pm

Tough watch that first half. Everton very aggressive and we’re rattling us. Second to every ball. Thankfully they’ve had no end product. But they’ve really stopped us playing our game.

Mings has hopefully got his weekly error out of the way with no damage.

Buendia looks better every game.

Need sharper more accurate passing in the second half.

OneColdHand · 22-01-2022 2:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118516905#Comment_118516905

He nearly scored with his head in the last game too. Didnt realise he had that aspect to his game

Esse85 · 22-01-2022 2:39pm

And that's why we need to upgrade Mings in the Summer, he's like Smith, reached his peak.

Patser · 22-01-2022 2:53pm

Unreal save by Emi in the middle of all that scrambling.

I'd have Carney on for Coutinho, or maybe Sanson to shore up midfield

Patser · 22-01-2022 2:57pm

Everton making chances......

Esse85 · 22-01-2022 2:57pm

Yeah Chukwuemeka was excellent when he came on against Utd.

We are getting deeper and deeper, inviting Everton pressure onto us.

Patser · 22-01-2022 2:59pm

That's another - 3 great chances blown by Everton.

Gerrard needs to change something to break this up

Esse85 · 22-01-2022 3:05pm

Mina would only love to score against Martinez.

Chuk is on.

Esse85 · 22-01-2022 3:06pm

This is where the lack of a DM kills us.

McGinn and Luiz have been missing this half, no game management from them at all.

matrim · 22-01-2022 3:28pm

Got the win but we were very poor in the second half.

Esse85 · 22-01-2022 3:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118517251#Comment_118517251

Agreed, don't think we deserved it, we rode our luck, but delighted to get three points and a clean sheet.

Panrich · 22-01-2022 3:42pm

Our midfield disappeared in the second half and Mings was bullied by DCL but we held on and got the win.

Bounty Hunter · 22-01-2022 3:57pm

I think everyone knows we need a DM (unfortunately I think that might wait till the summer, but I hope they prove me wrong here), which was made even more obvious since Nakamba got injured. Todays 11 plus that addition could give anyone a game but without it we are somewhat fortunate to get 3 points today. That said we did get the 3 points and another clean sheet. 70m under Coutinho's belt too is nice and Beundia is coming into himself more and more after a frustrating start for Villa where you could see the quality but things just weren't coming off for him. The bench is starting to look a lot stronger too. you'd almost forget we signed Bailey at this stage too, hopefully he can be back after the international break and the bench will look even stronger as he looked like he had a lot of potential during the few cameos he had and should only get better when he gets gametime and can gel properly with the team

I've mentioned Luiz a few times but I really hope Carney signs a new deal too. Lad has huge potential and I am sure he is looking for assurances but he is only 18 and getting minutes in the premiership every week atm so surely it is the best place for him in terms of his development especially considering that he has been there since he was 13.

pavb2 · 22-01-2022 5:50pm

I think the talk will be that it was a good defensive performance but we should never have allowed them to come on to us the way they did. Fortunately they only had one tactic which was to lump the ball up though it nearly paid of with the number of free kicks we gave away around the area.

It was our best line up out there but they need to improve quickly as more clinical teams will finish us off there was just no control of the game 2nd half.

Esse85 · 23-01-2022 12:47am

Rodrigo Bentancur: Aston Villa in talks with Juventus over move for defensive midfielder. £16m fee mentioned.

OneColdHand · 23-01-2022 1:34am

My understanding is that he's not really a DM though. He's more of a No.8. We are pretty stacking in that position, between Ramsey, SJM, Chuck, and its where a lot of people feel Luiz is at his best.

Bounty Hunter · 23-01-2022 2:58am

Gotta be honest as I’ve not seen a whole lot of Seria A recently I’m not sure about him but he is exactly the profile of player we should be looking at. Only 24, a DM who plays (18 games this season) for a top club like Juve and already has 45 caps for the traditionally tough tackling Uruguayan national team. Plus at under 20m in today’s terms it could turn out to be a great price for just what the club need.

Doodee · 23-01-2022 6:21pm

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h3LpCf0ahn8

Esse85 · 23-01-2022 6:29pm

Good podcast that one, Neil and Paddy are great to listen to. I listened to that episode last night.

Looks like this transfer is happening.

Bounty Hunter · 24-01-2022 10:36am

Yeah seems to be the case

"As per Tuttosport, Bentancur is one of many players up for sale, and Villa look set to sign the midfielder this week with Juventus looking to ‘accelerate plans’ to get the 24-year-old off the club’s books.

A 45-cap international with Uruguay, Bentancur is perhaps a surprise player that Juventus have allowed to leave the club this month given the midfielder’s quality and who else the Bianconeri could sell in that position."

Was odd to read that they are trying to push this through and at a relatively decent price considering he was starting for them Vs Milan only yesterday.

If it happens Gerrard can have no complaints about how the club have done / backed him in this window

pavb2 · 24-01-2022 2:12pm

Yes I thought it interesting that Purslow said that they don’t view the Jan and Summer transfer windows as two distinct events but look at the overall picture. He went on to say that there are two types of transfer, opportunistic in the case of Coutinho and Digne and in Bentancur’s case strategic.

Gerrard said he wanted to raise the age profile of the team which is a departure from the previous young and hungry approach for players who would have a sell on value. I think he knows where he and the club want to go but wants to get there sooner than anyone else had thought.

Bounty Hunter · 24-01-2022 3:46pm

The more I think about it the more I think Bentacur could be a great deal, especially considering he is still only 24.

This team and bench (add in a RB or Nakamba when he is back to make up the 9 allowed) looks so much better than what I was expecting before the window.

pavb2 · 25-01-2022 12:33pm

I think Ramsey is a starter at this stage could Bentancur possibly start ahead of Douglas Luiz.

Bounty Hunter · 25-01-2022 1:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118529994#Comment_118529994

I think that Gerrard does not see Luiz as his DM hence Nakamba getting so much gametime once he took over. Therefore Ramsey & Luis will be fighting it out / rotated for the slightly more advanced CM slot. If Luiz does not sign a new contract he could be sold in the summer and Ramsey would be a ready made replacement.

Bounty Hunter · 25-01-2022 2:35pm

Just saw this in the Arsenal thread and had been listening to Gab Marcotti talking about Juve's interest in him recently, he was saying they had to sell players to raise money for the deal to be possible. Perhaps they have sold a DM from Uruguay.

https://twitter.com/ZachLowy/status/1485751293876572160?t=ss1Dakcl84QpE87fVxM2XQ&s=09

pavb2 · 25-01-2022 8:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118530307#Comment_118530307

18 months left on Douglas Luiz contract it will be interesting to see how that plays out

LeBash · 25-01-2022 11:15pm

Davis got his first goal for Forrest tonight

OneColdHand · 26-01-2022 3:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118533173#Comment_118533173

His annual goal came early this year! 😁

Seriously though, hopefully regular first team football brings him on. He's unlikely to be PL standard, but he could be a menace in the championship.

JPA · 26-01-2022 11:04pm

Cameron Archer scored for Preston tonight, only joined Monday.

chases0102 · 27-01-2022 3:37pm

Hi all,

Booked flights over to Birmingham for 5th March game against Southampton. Bringing the old man.

Has anyone have advice as to how to try source 2 tickets together for the game?

pavb2 · 27-01-2022 6:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118540850#Comment_118540850

First thing to do is make sure you each have a Fan ID you can set this up on the Villa web site. it also helps if you have a booking history for example tickets for Man Utd at home required attendance at a previous home game I imagine for Southampton you wouldn’t need this. Once you have Fan ID and fulfill the criteria getting tickets together shouldn’t be a problem but get in early.

should also mention that once you have individual fan id’s just Assign the tickets to the relevant fan ID and you only need to do one transaction. They’ll then email the individual tickets to the main purchaser as a pdf with a bar code to be scanned at the turnstile.

Obviously have your covid bar code/record they have people around the ground who’ll check it and give you a wristband to gain entry.